Psychological capital and performance among undergraduate students: the role of meaning-focused coping and satisfaction

Abstract

She is also the Director of WANT-Research Team High Performance Group. Currently she is the salient President of the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology (SEPP) and she is an Advisor of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Work and Organizations Division's. She has about 300 national and international publications on Occupational Health Psychology and Positive Psychology applied to work. She has created a project of dissemination to share scientific knowledge and to help people and organizations to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life and be happier. Psychological capital and performance among undergraduate students: the role of meaning-focused coping and satisfactionThis study explores the predictive relationships between psychological capital (PsyCap), meaning-focused coping, satisfaction and performance among undergraduate students. Six hundred and eighty two (n=682) college students from 29 different academic programs completed an academic well-being survey, which included measures of PsyCap, coping strategies, and academic satisfaction (time 1). Performance data was collected five months later (time 2), at the end of the year. Path analysis results provided support for a sequential mediation model where PsyCap was directly related to performance, and indirectly related to performance through meaning-focus coping and satisfaction. In addition, PsyCap was directly associated with satisfaction, highlighting the importance of this psychological construct in academic settings. Understanding the role that meaning-focused coping and satisfaction play in the relationship between psychological capital and performance may be useful for scholars and lecturers to design optimal evidenced-based interventions to increase both well-being and academic achievement.

Coping, academic engagement and performance in university students

“…In this regard, Crego, Carrillo-Díaz, Armfield and Romero (2016) established that perceived stress mediated the relationship between coping and performance. Similarly, Ortega-Maldonado and Salanova (2018) found that meaning-focus coping was indirectly related to performance through academic satisfaction. Therefore, there is no clear evidence for a direct relationship between performance and coping.…”

“…Therefore, if adaptive coping is a personal resource for managing stressful situations, it could be related to performance through academic engagement dimensions. Previous research suggested that performance was indirectly and positively related to adaptive coping (Crego et al, 2016;Struthers et al, 2000;Ortega-Maldonado & Salanova, 2018) but it was indirectly and negatively related to maladaptive emotional coping (Crego et al, 2016). The current study evaluates the possible mediating role of academic engagement in the relationship between coping and academic performance.…”

Evaluation of a leadership development program to enhance university staff and student resilience

“…This process involves the capacity to negotiate for and draw upon psychological, social, cultural and environmental resources (Brewer et al, 2019, p. 10). The development of resilience has been shown to reduce psychological distress, assist with managing academic demands and enhance academic outcomes (Ortega-Maldonado, & Salanova, 2018;Pidgeon, Rowe, Stapleton, Magyar, & Lo, 2014). Rahat and Ilhan (2016) describe resilience as a significant predictor of successful coping for university students.…”

“…University staff play a pivotal role in the development of student capabilities (Chalmers et al, 2014), and thus are ideally placed to help build students' resilience (Ortega-Maldonado & Salanova, 2018). However, barriers exist to staff successfully enhancing student resilience, including the pressures they face on a daily basis.…”

“…The pedagogical changes needed to enhance student resilience require staff to develop new classroom practices, to rethink curriculum design (Ortega-Maldonado & Salanova, 2018;Mula et al, 2017), and to develop their ability to influence the educational practice of others. In other words, there is a need for professional development that invites university staff to embed resilience into the existing educational system, to reflect on, rethink and reframe their priorities for, and approaches to, teaching, and to facilitate their leadership of change at the program/course, school or institutional level (Martensson & Roxa, 2016).…”